LIVING WITH ART BLOG

Recently I was reminded of how important Balance is in the placement of art. In fact, balance may be the most important element, whether it be in one’s office or home. Too often we only focus on installing art. For example, if you google “how to hang art” a lot of specific directions and formulas appear. Such as: “paintings need to be hung at a 57-60” center;” or “artwork should be hung 6-12” over a table or other horizontal surface.” Most of the available advice emphasizes symmetry. That logic predisposes you can find two one-of-a-kind paintings, or several pieces of art identically framed. While these tips are helpful, blindly following them can give you a safe, proper and possibly boring space instead of an “inspired” room that evokes an emotional response from the viewer.

A superb book, gifted to me by Beth Hammack, one of our gallery artists, entitled, “The Inspired Home,” by Karen Lehrman Bloch, devotes an entire section of the book on Balance, which various contributors define as having Proportion, Harmony, Unity and Serenity. The photographs that are provided for illustration are full of contrasting styles, sizes, and modes of art strategically placed among antique and contemporary furnishings. The rooms are not chaotic, fussy, bland, symmetrical or formal. They are rooms to which you are drawn. Rooms in which you would like to live. Rooms that are comforting and make the viewer feel balanced.

Bloch suggests a simple exercise we can all do to strengthen our sense of balance and harmony.  She suggests that we need to think and/or view a “room” in nature. “It may consist of some trees, grass, a small lake or cliff, possibly a squirrel or two. As your eye travels from one ‘piece’ to another... it is never irritated or offended because the ‘room is balanced.” The ability to use nature to train the eye to achieve balance is a wonderful skill and good news for me. I am drawn to all kinds of artful objects, such as the two large extraordinary birdhouses in my office created by the late Nick Irza, as well as to photographs, sculptures and every other art form in existence. Fortunately using Balance as my organizing principle, they all live beautifully and happily together. Or, at least I like to think they do. The next time you fall in love with a piece of art and your immediate thought is that “it won’t work or fit,” think about how you can use balance to make it work in your space.  

Image - JRB's office at JRB Art at The Elms